How to play the Tagelharpa.
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2021
- Per Runberg shows the basics about playing tagelharpa. This instruction is based on the tradition he got from the great tagelharpa player Styrbjörn Bergelt who in his turn got it from an exile Estonian-Swede who escaped from Ormsö island during Ww2.
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I just received my first Tagelharpa and this video was really helpful! I’m not really a musician yet, but decided in my second half of life I will be, thank you for the helpful instructions!
You are welcome! Good luck with your new instrument.
I love finding music wizards in my algorithm
🧙🎶
Great video!! We would enjoy seeing more!! The great thing about these instruments is they come in many design types and different woods, and so many people have cultivated many creative techniques to play them. Thanks for showing your style! Some (not you) fail to understand that creative evolution holds no bounds and anyone that attempts to police your technique/style is revealing themselves to be creatively blind! After all, every instrument in human history created and played, has come from creative thinking and constructive imagination. Thanks for the tips again! ⚔️👊🏻👊🏻⚔️
Thank you my friend, my grandmother migrated from Sweden to the US. My grandfather is from Germany. I would really like to learn about my heritage, which is why I bought a Talharpa. Thank you for this again. And many blessings to you and your family.
Nice to hear. Good luck with your talharpa.
this is the best tagelharpa introduction i've ever watched.. thank youuu!
You are welcome! I am glad you found it useful. Good luck, and happy harping.
Bowed instruments came to Europe from Asia about 1000 or so years ago. This is illustrated in how the tagelharpa is played, like the Mongolin morin khuur (a two string horsehead fiddle).
Thanks for your video kind Sir & greetings from Utah, here in USA
Thanks!
That is such a beautiful and soothing sound.
Thanks! You can find lots of more videos with tagelharpa music in my RUclips channel.
Thank you so much Per, very clear and precise tutorial.
Now... to practice!
Good luck!
I have something similar from Nepal called a Sarangi. Very cool!
Super useful video! Thank you!
Lovely !! i really appreciate that you spoke about the 'body language' of the instrument. By describing how it sits on your lap is very very helpful - i am a small person and play many instruments - i wondered about 'how big' i can make mine because of handling it. i see now that it's not probably alot different than having a dreadnaught guitar, or a small resonator, both of which i play.
Thank you for sharing what you know about this wonderful instrument.
You are welcome!
Hello! I am from eastern europe myself. There were no tagelharpas in the ancient times of my country. Our ancestors were slavs, but ancient slavic peoples didn't use any tagelharpa at all. In other words - tagelharpa is "alien" musical instrument for my people. There are some Tagelharpa makers in my country. They make hand-made tagelharpas ONLY with 3 strings. I would be glad to be given advice from you about how many strings the original ancient scandinavian tagelharpa should have? Maybe there are some scandinavian or other tagelharpa makers these know the original string material for tagelharpas...
There are two kinds of bowed harps in Scandinavia. The Karelian Jouhikko (from Finland) and the Talharpa (or Tagelharpa) from the islands with ancient Swedish culture in Estonia. Today there are also a lot of mix between those two instrument tradition and a lot of experimental instruments. A traditional Jouhikko had 2 or 3 strings and a narrow hand hole, so you just can reach one string for playing the melody. A traditional Tagelharpa has normally 4 strings. I has a wide hand hole, so you can reach all strings (normally 2, or 3 of them were used for the melody), and a flat bridge, so you could play all four strings together. The most common traditional string material for both these instruments were horsehair.
Great! It will be really helpful for beginners 👍
Thank´s!
Good job, Per. Let's hope we can make a talharpa-meeting happen in Sweden sometime.
Thank you good man
You are welcome!
Hej hej Per! I ordered a handcrafted taglharpe from Russia and it arrived today. Thanks to watching your video prior to the harp arriving I could play it almost instantly. The sound of course has gotten better from the initial attempt at playing. I have been playing guitar for 4 years and I find that knowing the distance between frets on the guitar could easily be transferred relatively to the harp. So within only 40 minutes of playing I could play the harp part relatively well of three of my favourite songs featuring the taglharpe. Mind you, my harp “only” has 3 strings as that was the type I most wanted. I am so excited to learn how to get better sound and start nailing the fingering for the right notes every time. Thanks a lot for such a great video!
Edit: I find it interesting how I’ve already developed techniques that are more suitable for me. For example the placement of the harp between my legs.
Nice to hear that tve video has been useful.
Thank you!
You are welcome!
Good job 😃 and Pratsus Laulu at the end. I will play it faster too next time. Nice feeling 😊
Thanks!
helpful! incredibly so.
That´s nice to hear.
интересный инструмент 🎻 👏
Очень классно! Хочу освоить этот старинный инструмент)
Good luck, and happy harping!
I like this video very much, well explained. What's the benefit of a 5-string tagelharpa?
Flott! Det jeg kunne tenkt meg å se er hvordan du skaper dine egne strenger.
Tack! Jag har planer på en video om tagelsträngar.
What are the strings tuned to?
Tagl is the hair of the back of the horse.
Actually it is all the hair from the horse that is called tagel in Swedish. But for strings (and bow) you only use the hairs from the tail.
@@perrunberg4849 in Icelandic it's fax. This why Swedes never use the mane for taglharpa, because they two separated things. The tagl and fax two separated things in old norse but swedes forgot it.
This is a fantastic intro- do you know any resources or people that can help teach someone more on how to play? I was gifted a 4 string tagelharpa and would love to reach out for lessons!
I can give lessons through live chat. Send me a mail: per.runberg@gmail.com
Hi, I just got my first Tagelharpa. I watched a few videos but I cannot ret a straight sound out of the instument, and often time only one or two strings seem to make a sound. what mistake could I make?
It is hard to tell without seeing the harp, or see how you handle it. It can bee how you handle it, or it can be how the harp is set up/constructed. For example. There are quite common that modern harps (specially those harps made of people who has newer seen a real tagelharpa) have a curved bridge. On a traditional one the bridge is flat so you easilly can touch all four (or three) strings with the bow all the time while bowing the harp. If the bridge is curved it is hard to touch more than two strings a time. However. Good luck with your new harp. I hope you succed playing it soon.
Im trying to build a tagelharpa to play soon! What kind of strings did you use ?
I use horsehair strings.
is the tagelharpa loud? can it be played softly? thanks so much for this video!
It is not a loud instrument. Works great for playing in a apartement. The sound is quite rough, but can also be really soft.
I don't know what is my problem, but when I touched by finger the string sound becomes deaf. :'(
What are the strings made of please
The strings are made of horsehair. I have made the strings (and the harp) myself.
is the Tagelharpa also traditionally played by danish people? Or just Swedish and Estonian normally?
The traditions we know about is mostly located to some Islands belonging to Estonia, but inherited several hundreds of years ago with people from Sweden. The culture on those islands were more ancient Swedish than Estonian. There are also two tagelharpas found in Sweden but all knowledge about how they were played on the Swedish mainland has been erased. Today there are people in Denmark playing the Tagelharpa, and it is also quite possible that it has been in use in Denmark in the past, but there are no tradition that I know about from Denmark.
@@perrunberg4849 thank you for responding!
Im part danish and I want to play an instrument thats easy and played by danish people in the past. And this looks like an interesting instrument. So yet again, thank you for responding with a knowledgeable message!
do you build your own, or purchase them? Can you recommend a good builder who sells quality tagelharpas?
I make them myself, and it is possible to order a quality tagelharpa from me.
@@perrunberg4849 I am interested in a four string. Do you have a website or anything?
@@edwardreiller6269 I don't have a web site. But if you want samples of my work, you can look through my RUclips channel. I have built all harps but one in the videos. You can contact me via mail: per. runberg@gmail. com
Hello, I have sent two emails, and have not heard back. Perhaps you are not receiving them?
@@edwardreiller6269 That was strange. I have check both the inbox and the trashbox. I can't find anything from you. I noticed that the editor in my phone has put space behind the dots in my e-mail address. Maybe that's why it doesn't work. per.runberg@gmail.com is the correct address.
My english isn't perfect, and no one in Brazil know play tagelharpa to teach me 😢
So no rosen on the bow?
You defenitely need rosin on the bow. Sometimes it also helps to rub some on the strings also.
@@perrunberg4849 I thought so just never see anyone do it
Hvor får man kjøpt det i Norge?
Eg kjenner dessverre ikkje til nokon som lager tagelharpe i Noreg. Eg bur i Sverige.
@@perrunberg4849 Skjønner, noe sted i Sverige som selger?
Jag bygger tagelharpor på beställning.
That's one way yes. Most people don't position the instrument or hold the bow like that.
"How I play the tagelharpa" is surely a better title. :)
This is not just how I play the tagelharpa. This is a traditional way of playing it. Tagelharpa is a traditional instrument with its known origin from Ormsö, Dagö and Nuckö islands in Estonia. This way of holding instrument and bow, is the way I learnt it, more than 30 years ago, from Styrbjörn Bergelt. Styrbjörn in his turn had learnt it from an exile Ormsö inhabitian, living in Sweden. Since the population on Ormsö was deported during Ww2, Styrbjörn is the only known link back to this tradition. This way of holding tagelharpa is also the way that was documented by PhD Otto Andersson in his book Stråkharpan (the bowed harp) from 1923.
Nah... If you watch all the pictures that exist of players when it comes to both tagelharpa and jouhikko, the grip of the bow and the position of the instrument is widely different between all players. Styrbjörn himself didn’t even hold the instrument or bow like that.
You can't try to have like a patent on how to properly hold and play the instrument just because one player held the instrument and bow like that. There were no standards and as I said, it was very different around the islands, mainland and Karelia. The tuning is also not a common one, so I don't understand where the absolute thinking comes from.
@@StarshipTrooper4231
Dear Ms/Mrs/Mr GamesAndStuff. If you read the description of the video, I declare what tradition this instruction is based on. I have never claimed that this is the only way. Styrbjörn was my friend for more than 15 years, and I had lots of opportunity to play-, preforme-, and talk about instruments with him. I don´t play exactly like him, but the basic principes that I teach in this video comes from what I learnt from him. The Karelian instrument johikko/jouhikantele is a separate tradition. You can use my advices on a johikko to, but my intention with the video is to teach how to play tagelharpa/talharpa. This is also why I mentioned tagelharpa in the title and not a wider description like, bowed harps.
I made this video just because a lot of people asked for a tutorial about how to play tagelharpa. If you dont like it, that´s fine. Luckily there are a lot of other videos on RUclips.
You should read the description and interpret it differently I guess. Per know what he was taught and have his style. I have another, like any other player out there. Styrbjörn was a treasure when it comes to the preservation of this instrument, so I'll trust Per on this one. :)
Forgot Norway did we?
No I haven't forgotten about Norway. There is a 14:th Century statue of a bowed harp musician in the Nidaros Cathedral and a 16:th Century mentioning of a Haar Gue in a Norwegian textbook. It is also possible that the Norwegian Hardingfele is developed from a bowed harp, or something similar. But, we don't know anything about how a possible bowed harp should have been played in Norway. The Talharpa, which I teach about in this video, is the bowed harp that was in use in the Swedish culture that was isolited on some islands located on Estonian territory. The population on these islands call themself Estonian Swedes. I have learnt how to play this instrument from a man who, in his turn, learnt it from two men who brought it to Sweden from Ormsö, one of those islands I mentioned.
@@perrunberg4849 thank you so much for your reply, is there a social media you use that I can contact you? I am also in the process of learning this instrument. I am a native / freestyle jaw harp musician and I am searching for more knowledge, hope to hear from you